The AP is reporting via Yahoo! News that, "Iraq's prime minister said Monday his country wants some type of timetable for a withdrawal of American troops included in the deal the two countries are negotiating. It was the first time that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has explicitly and publicly called for a withdrawal timetable — an idea opposed by President Bush."
It appears that al-Maliki supports the Democratic position, and the position of the majority of Americans, on withdrawal from Iraq.
The news report was sparse, but Mouwaffak al-Rubaie, the Iraqi national security adviser was reported to have said that "the government is proposing a timetable conditioned on the ability of Iraqi forces to provide security." Al-Maliki said while attending a meeting in Abu Dhabi that Iraq has proposed a short-term memorandum of agreement, which is "now on the table." The memorandum includes withdrawal of U.S. troops, and "the goal is to end the presence (of foreign troops)."
Iraqi lawmakers have resisted attempts to negotiate a formal status of forces agreement. They are apparently concerned that Bush will try to establish a presence that will "threaten the country's sovereignty." It appears that the Iraqi parliament doesn't want the U.S. "to have authority to carry out military operations in Iraq and arrest the country's citizens, along with legal immunity for private contractors and control of Iraqi air space." Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said last week that the U.S. "had agreed to drop immunity for private contractors and give up control of Iraqi air space if Iraq guaranteed it could protect the country's skies."
In response to questions about al-Maliki's statements, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, "This falls in the category of ongoing negotiations, and I'm not going to talk about every single development in the negotiations."
I wonder how John McCain will try to spin this news?